St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-13
lCopyrighted.l
.rfn The E1nrn

examine HUE Ile various CuoI -
which have been made to reach this
geographical point. One of the eXpedl-
tons best planned in its general az
rangementS. although it failed i'll de-
tails. particularly that OF food, was COM
manded by Sir Edward Parry, in the
famous attempt to reach the North Pole
by boats and SledgeS to the nOrthWard
CT SpitZbeTgen, IL the year 1877. IN
fortunately for Parry. he found instead
of a solid. fixed pack, over which his
party could travel with fair degree OF
TaDidity. broken, scattered and DRIFT
Ing mass of ice, which was not Sufhclent
IL extent to justify Sledge travel, nor, on
til other hand, was sufficiently free
from ice to permit of extensive move
mentS by boats. In consequence, the
energies of the party were substantially
wasted in repeated and almost cOntin-
uOuS efforts of launching and drawing
up their boats Added to these troubles
came later the knowledge that the
southerly drift carried them by night
nearly as far to the southwark as their
utmost endeavOrS enabled them to travel
northward by day. Notwithstanding
such adverse conditions, Parry sue
ceeded in reaching latitude Sc - m,
within 49, miles of the geographical
pole Had Parry been the master of a
vessel such as a steam whaler OF to-day.
it is beyond question that by vessel he
could have forced his wayfn the Green
land sea. far to the nOrthward of the
eighty-third parallel. But such was not
to be his fate: and later the world has
accepted as an axiom the sound Arctic
canon advanced by Parry himself that
no great success can be made by YES
sci unless it forces its way in open water
along the shore of bold land which has
a western exposure.
Later the British expedition of 1915
and 1876. favored by the coast of Green
land, passed up the West Greenland
channel and displayed the British flag
upon the polar pack, in latitude $500.
within 800 miles of the geographical
pole The heavy equipment of the
English party. and the fact that the ex-
hausting work of dragging the sledgeS
fell entirely on the men instead of being
done. at least in part, by Eskimo dogs,
together with errors of diet, which have
never been entirely and satisfactorily
settled upon scauSed the breakdown of
Markham'S party. and the consequent
failure to do more than display the Brit
iSh flag a few miles nearer the pole than
had ever been done before.
In the expedition of Weyprecht,
Payer. leaving the TegethOff on the
south shore of the new land known as
Franz Joseph Land, succeeded in reach
ing by sledge Cape Fligely, Just above
the eighty-SecOnd parallel, whence land,
with water-hOleS along the western
shore. was visible nOrthward to the
eighty-third parallel.
GEN. GREELY'S EXPEDITION.
Lastly, in the expedition under my
command. Lieut.. Lockwood, with Brain
ard and Christensen. attained on the
northwest coast of Greenland the high
est latitude ever reached by man, either
on land or on sea. From Lockwood
island they looked nOTthward along a
coast which yet continued to trend TO
the northeast. and saw the sharp out
lines of Cape Washington, which is sit
uated within 800 miles of the geOgraph-
zeal pole.
1t follows then that land at or beyond
the eighty-third parallel has been trOd
or seen within 4O0miles of the geograph-
zeal pole at two nearly opposite points
of the Arctic circle. and the question
recurS whether it is yet possible for the
Intervening space to be passed over by
man, provided the expedition is ably
commanded, the parties well equipped,
and sufficient number of supporting
SledgeS furnished. If the difficulties of
food and travel were the only objections,
my answer would be yes; for although
my own party did not succeed in reaching
the goal their failure must be attributed
to a great extent to the fact that the
Lady Franklin Bay expedition was
planned and organized in the interest of
scientific observations. and not for the
purpose of geographical explorations,
which latter must be quite barren of
valuable results. Had the expedition
been prOperly fitted out for exploration
alOne-had money and time been ayaila-
BILE for its commander to select his
sledges. purchase his dogs and make ar
rangementS for all travelling devices
known to Arctic Sledgemen in the inter-
est of his exploring work, the writer
doubts not that Lieut.. Lockwood and
his hardy companions, instead of stop
ping at So, a M, would have passed
to the nOrthwaTd until the eighty-fifth
parallel had been crossed or the coast of
Greenland rounded. Beyond the
eighty-fifth parallel it would still be a
question of tried, determined men and a
favorable season, such as favored Lock-
wood in 1882. for a storm in 1888 turned
his party backward when starting
under more favorable circumstances
than in the previous year.
But even despite the open sea
at Black Horn cliffs the eighty-fifth
reached by the American EXPEDITION of
1881 had its work been strictly geOgra-
phical, for in such case the command
or and a dozen men would have landed
by preference, not on Grinnell Land,
but on the Greenland coast near Thank
God harbOr, whence it would have been
possible during the fall of 1881 and the
early spring of 1882 to plant appropriate
supplies at either Cape Bryant or Cape
May, or still further to the northward
on Cape Britannia land. Such autumn
depOtS would have insured a party
reaching the eighty-SiXth OF eighty
seventh parallel of latitude without
any inSuperable difficulty, even had land
failed them at the eighty-fifth. Under
favorable conditions such as possibly oc-
cured that year 1SS2) the party could
have attained the pole itself, provided
Mat the spot where the latitude attainS
It's maximum and longitude ceases to
exist is situated on the frozen sea or is a
Bit of iceleSS land. These conditions,
however, are by no means certain, and
in the opinion of the writer, until
AERIAL NAVIGATION Is SUCCESSFUL,
it will never be the fortune of man to
place foot upon the north geographical
pole. This opinion is not based upon a
mere SurmiSe, but rather On scientific
grounds resting on deductions drawn
from the prevalence Of fiOebergs near
the pole and the character of the ice i'll
the sea to the northward Of Grinnell
Land
Ii is matter of little doubt that the
South Polar regions contain a land of
vast extent, from which slowly increas-
ing layers of falling snow gradually send
forth from its central plateaus the enOr-
nous flat-top icebergs of the south. The
manner in which southern ice forms has
been clearly set forth by the late DR..
Carpenter in all article entitled 1.-THE
Deep Sea and its Contents" which was